Trump’s stance on immigration isn’t exactly a new thing, chants of “build the wall” were heard at many of his rallies. So, it isn’t surprising that his time in office has been filled with anti-immigration policy like the Muslim Ban, the prioritization of removing “criminal aliens,” and now the kiddie concentration camps at the border.
Trump has used fear of the immigrant as a justification for his actions since the beginning. In his acceptance speech at the RNC he blamed undocumented immigrants for murdering people:
They are being released by the tens of thousands into our communities with no regard for the impact on public safety or resources...We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities
A lot of words, but does research actually show that immigrants significantly increase crime rates? Is there a cause for all of this blustering? The short answer is no.
Research actually shows quite the opposite to be true: on average, immigrants commit fewer crimes than born-n-bred Americans.
According to a paper published in the Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, there is strong evidence that shows immigration does not cause an increase in murder, robbery, burglary or larceny, and in some metropolitan areas, the addition of immigrants may even reduce crime rates due to the revitalization of neighborhoods. This conclusion was reached after studying census data and crime rates in 200 cities for the years 1970-2010.
Not that the Donald cares much about facts, but the rest of us should. All of this immigrants are criminals rhetoric is nothing more than a tactic used so Americans will be complicit in the Trump Administration’s scheming. Like most of the things that come out of the White House, there is absolutely no truth to it.
Read more about the statistics, “Immigrants Do Not Increase Crime, Research Shows” written by Charis Kubrin, Graham C. Ousey, Lesley Reid, Robert Adelman and posted by Scientific American on February 7, 2017
